Day 4 Monday June 9^th 2014 Healesville to Holbrook

It was a very ‘nose cold’ night but we slept in until 7:15am. It is around zero degrees. Woody leaps under the shower and there is only a trickle of water. After racing about to check the taps he decides on a quick ‘bush shower’ under what water there is. Then it is my turn and guess what? We hadn’t filled the tanks at home expecting to keep our weight down until Healesville and now there is nothing left and there is a burst water main out on the Don Road. The park managers are kept busy flushing the toilets with water from the swimming pool and the ducks are not happy. Poor Woody’s hands are frozen from packing up the hoses that are stiff with ice.

At 9:30am it is time for the big farewell, we check and double check the rig then there are kisses and hugs from the gang and we’re off! Just like that and we’re off on our own. It’s a lovely morning for a drive and we go across the ridge to Yarra Glen and on up the Melba Highway to Yea where we stop for breakfast.

The hills are rounded and crisscrossed with sheep tracks. The water level at Eildon weir has dropped considerably since last summer. We stop at Swanpool and say g’day to G who is the new owner of our old van. G is up to his waist in the plumbing pit at the town hall. The locals run a cinema at the Swanpool hall and are now upgrading their kitchen facilities for the forthcoming Bald Archies art awards.

We intend to free camp at Bowna just south of Holbrook but of course we have no water. We pull into a highway rest area and fill our plastic jerry can with 20 litres. Easy. Then we try pouring it into our tanks and end up wearing most of it and looking like wet T shirt competition entrants. So much for the easy pour spout. At this point we switch to Plan B and decide on a van park.

We do a little shopping at Chiltern and eat lunch in the IGA car park before pressing on to Holbrook. By 4:00pm we’re settled in the Holbrook Tourist Park and filling the tanks with every drop of water we can.

Travelling Kms: Day 1 – 77km, Day 4 – 361km